Tennessee Democratic Party

The Tennessee Democratic Party (TNDP) is the state affiliate of the Democratic Party in the US state of Tennessee. The party traces its philosophical roots to President Andrew Jackson, but the party evolved from a conservative party to a liberal party as the national Democratic Party did so. During the era of the "Solid South", the Democratic Party had solid control over much of the state (except for East Tennessee, a stronghold of the Tennessee Republican Party), but it began to lose control of the state to the rival Republican Party during the 1960s and 1970s. After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, many conservative Democrats defected to the Republicans, and the Democrats came to represent the African-American community and other minority groups, while the Republicans became the new party representing rural white Americans. The Tennessee Democratic Party therefore had its main bases in the cities of Memphis and Nashville, while the Republicans controlled the vast majority of the rural State House districts. In 2017, the TNDP held 7/33 State Senate seats and 28/99 State House of Representatives seats.